In October 1997, Anderson was tried on felony marijuana charges stemming
from a 25-pound shipment of hemp seeds that he ordered in 1991. Law enforcement
said the seeds were not sterile. Prosecutors argued that, sterile or not,
the seeds fit the legal description of marijuana. The jurors were divided
in favor of acquittal, 9 to 3, when a mistrial was declared in
the case. The same charges against Anderson had been dismissed against Roger
Christie, Anderson's former co-defendant. (See "Hemp
Seed Prosecution in Hawaii Ends in Mistrial," NewsBriefs,
November-December 1997.)

Anderson and Christie filed a $3 million lawsuit against the county in
federal court arguing that they were targeted for prosecution because of
their outspoken criticism of marijuana prohibition (Roger Christie, et
al. v. G. Kay Iopa, et al., United States District Court, Hawai'i, Civil
No. 95-1026 DAE). In November 1992, in regards to prosecuting Anderson
and Chritie, Deputy Prosecutor Kay Iopa said, "... as a practical
matter, no, we're not going to go out, bust the little old lady that's got
a bag of bird seeds just because there is one marijuana seed in there [but]
when you get twenty-five pounds within an order for five hundred pounds
or more, going to a hemp grower, that is very vocally, very outwardly advocating
the legalization of marijuana," before she was interrupted by defense
counsel. Anderson and Christie allege that Iopa required that efforts to
resolve their criminal case must include an agreement that the two men not
write any more letters to the editors of newspapers about their views on
the case. Trial in the federal civil suit is scheduled for July 14,
1998 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.